Australian couples are divorcing less and staying married for longer, new data from The Australian Bureau of Statistics has revealed. According to the 2024 marriages and divorces figures, which was released this week, divorce rates are their lowest since the Family Law Act was enacted fifty years ago.
And while fewer people overall are tying the knot, marriages are now lasting longer and less likely to end in divorce.
The new data indicates a decline in both marriage and divorce rates over the past twenty years. Last year, the marriage rate – measured per 1,000 residents over 16-years old – was 5.5. In 2004, the figure was 7.1. Marriages are also lasting longer. In 2020, marriages lasted for a median of 12.1 years. Today, the figure has risen to 13.2 years.
According to Lauren Moran, the head of health and vital statistics at the ABS, older couples are likelier to have longer marriages, which affects the median length of marriage.
In 2024, the divorce rate dropped 3 per cent, from 2.3 in 2023 down to 2.1. The latest data corresponds to a report released earlier this year by the Australian Institute of Family Studies which found the divorce rate in 2023 had fallen to its lowest level since the 1975 Family Law Act was implemented.
Dr Lixia Qu, senior research fellow of the Australian Institute of Family Studies and author of the report, said in April that the figures reflected in the report indicate that “marriage has become quite a deliberate choice, a considered decision.”
When couples are getting married or divorcing, they are also doing it at a later stage in their lives. According to the lates ABS data, the median age women got married in 2024 was 31.2 years old, while for men it was 32.8 years old.
In the same year, the median age women got divorced was 44.1 while for men it was 47.1 years old. Married couples above 60 are divorcing at higher rates, while younger couples are divorcing less.
“When marriages decreased significantly during the Covid-19 pandemic, the largest decreases were in marriages of younger people,” Lauren Moran told The Guardian this week.
Meanwhile, data collected by information portal The Separation Guide earlier this year found a 40 per cent uptick in enquiries on the website between December 2023 and January 2024. Angela Harbinson, CEO of The Separation Guide, attributed the rise in onboarding enquiries to individuals wanting “to have one last Christmas together before taking action.”
“This is why we generally see an uptick in online queries post-Christmas and in the New Year,” she said.
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